This is a really good story. It reminds me of being in Sunday School and hearing the Christian versions of these stories for the first time. Even though I am a devoted Christian these greats stories of Christ sometimes get boring. It is refreshing that the Flying Spaghetti Monster offers a religion to supplement Christianity. Most religions are pretty picky and want you to leave your religion to join in their reindeer games. The Flying Spaghetti Monster is much more humble or too stupid to notice. I'm not sure which. Either way I am glad that I have been blessed by a wide array of entertaining literature to suppliment my religious life.

Christianity offered a wonderful childhood full of magic for me and I have a hard time relating to the negative descriptions of Christianity. In time I'm sure I'll be descriping how colorful my childhood was. Pastafarianism has the potential to be way more beautiful but I am not sure it's time has come. I have a hard time seeing this religion to spread beyond someone's personal computer or a few zealous single men in their early 20's.

Even if Pastafarians cannot exist in organizational form we can always exist in literature to inspire a humble spirit in our relationships towards others and remind us not to take life too seriously.

juicegiver wrote:I have a hard time seeing this religion to spread beyond someone's personal computer or a few zealous single men in their early 20's....

I think you are a bit off with your demograph there juice... though my youngest [son] is in his late 20's. There are quite a few Ministers out there with their congregations. Religions try to make you what they want you to be... the beauty of Pastafarianism is you take from it what you what IT to be.

There are a load of internet 'religions' out there: Pastafarianism, Dudeism, IPUism, Russell's Teapotism. There is obviously demand for something to fill the religion-shaped hole in people's lives, but that hopefully doesn't involve all those tithes, protesting outside abortion clinics, and singing dreadful hymns about the mercy of someone who allowed his own son to get nailed to a tree.

Pastafarianism may be the one for me - it may not be in the long run. But until the conventional religions start to understand that there are now multiple generations of people out there who don't believe in an omnipotent, omniscient God, let alone transubstantiation or miracles; religions are never going to get these people across their doors, and they are never going to help these disenfranchised people address their real spiritual needs.

Yesterday was 12th July - it was the 323rd anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne, in which the Roman Catholics and Protestants of Ireland knocked lumps out of each other over which unelected foreign aristocrat should rule them. The idea of the absolute power of a monarch has long since passed into history, so why were the Orange Order out marching in the streets of Glasgow last weekend, and the streets of Belfast this weekend? Trying their damnedest to antagonise as many Catholics as possible over a 300-odd year old war?

As long as mainstream religion perpetuates bollocks like that, it will never gain acceptance from me or my family. My wife is nominally Catholic, I am nominally Protestant (except that I am a Pastafarian and she's a Trekkie). Some people around here would say that we should never have got married despite loving each other and providing support and security and happiness for each other. Why? Because of a meaningless accident of birth. Prods and Tims, Montagues and Capulets, Sharks and Jets, Bigendians and Littlendians. A load of nonsense.

Sorry, I'll get off my soapbox now. Juicegiver, there is a role for modern religions, even 'arch-atheist' Professor Richard Dawkins admits that there seems to be a religion-shaped hole in the human psyche. As long as old-fashioned religions fail to adapt to the last 300 years of human progress (hell, even if they manage to make it to this side of the First World War) they will appear anachronistic to millions of people who have a real need for spiritual support. And that is why Pastafarianism has a real chance to bring about a change, because it has been shaped by modern people with modern lives, not by ancient, badly translated texts in the custody of crumbly old men.

"I don't mean to sound bitter, cynical or cruel; but I am, so that's how it comes out." ~ Bill Hicks."To argue with a person who has renounced reason is like administering medicine to the dead." ~ Thomas Paine."One should not believe everything one reads on the internet." ~ Abraham Lincoln."I linked the number of MPs to the number of votes. If you'd done a real Science degree you'd understand sticking to the point." ~ daftbeaker.

Those tithes have kept the church afloat for 2000 years. This affords the church the opportunity to build community centers for people to gather around together to practice their religion. In some cases it affords the church the opportunity to employ full time experts to preserve the integrity of ancient traditions that can easily disappear in one to two generations. In some cases these tithes afford the church the opportunity to dispel their hope to other places throughout the world to fill that spiritual void that many people encounter. Yes, tithing also creates opportunity for corruption, abuse and bloated bureacracies. I'm convinced that I have seen the nasty side of exploiting generous givers more than anybody else in this forum. (If not, I'm sure I'm in the top 5.) I even fought against it and got my head taken off. (maybe I can share that story someday)

All organizations have a slush fund to fund corruption. No organization with revenues exceeding $10 can avoid such problems as this. This is human nature. If the Church of The Flying Spaghetti Monster refuses to be organized and strong then we can avoid these types of problems. There is no doubt about that but then you have a trade off of being unorganized and weak. This leaves you unable to build community centers for fellow Pastafarians to gather together. This leaves us unable to employ full time experts to preserve our traditions.

On the bright side this does leave us incapable of dispelling our message and hope to other people throughout the world who have never heard of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. This does also keep us out of the nasty business of financial, sexual and violent scandals to tarnish our reputation.

But if you don't exist after 80 years there is no reputation to protect. I love Pastafarianism but I love Christian much more. There is coming a day when Christianity will lose it's influence. If you don't believe me just ask Baal, Kronos, Zeus or any of these other gods who have now been demoted to myths. However I do believe Christianity has a good 500 years or so left. It's hard to be so optimistic about Pastafarianism. This may just be a fad that I had the pleasure of seeing.

Roy Hunter wrote:The idea of the absolute power of a monarch has long since passed into history, so why were the Orange Order out marching in the streets of Glasgow last weekend, and the streets of Belfast this weekend? Trying their damnedest to antagonise as many Catholics as possible over a 300-odd year old war?

I found this very hard to understand too. It's a kind of group madness is my only conclusion.

I suppose we might have to accept that suchlike is part of human nature and only gene therapy may be the answer ;)

Welcome, bkverni.

Grand Deducer Watson of Sherlock. NoName, no pack drill. Astral zone changed five times a day (flexible). Great at manifesting parking spaces by thought control. Hatred of terminology of survivors and commitment to win-win reality.

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